De-bunking Fundraising Myths – Part 11 (of 12)

We’ve all heard myths about fundraising. These often lead us to do the exact opposite of what we should be doing to raise money. We’ll be running a twelve part series de-bunking fundraising myths to take a close look at these false assumptions about giving.

This is the eleventh in the series and we will run one each month (if you can’t wait to a year to read all of them you can purchase the book Beyond Fundraising: A Complete Guide to Congregational Stewardship and read them in Chapter 1: The Spiritual Roots of Stewardship). Sending out a mailing is surely the easiest way to ask for financial commitments but is it the best way?

As always, we encourage you to leave comments.

Fundraising Myth #11

Myth: Because people don’t like to talk about money, annual financial commitments must be sought in an indirect way. It is best to send financial commitment forms through the mail and ask recipients to return them by mail. In this way, they will not be offended, embarrassed, or angry.

Truth: The more indirect the approach, the less money will be contributed. Personal stewardship conversations are most effective. Getting groups together is a less direct approach, but it can provide an occasional break from the stewardship conversations. Telephone calls and mail solicitations are the most ineffective ways to ask for money. If you are uncomfortable talking about money, the solution is to find ways to become more comfortable talk about it, not to avoid direct, personal conversations.